558 Chronicles of Science. [ Oct., 
themselves at that time in parts of the Pacific nearly on the meri- 
dian of New Zealand may send us accounts of phenomena observed 
on the occasion; but there is reason to fear that the display will 
nowhere be properly watched by experienced observers. 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE Royat AstrRoNomIcAL Society. 
We mentioned in our last Chronicle the statements made by 
Mr. Abbott respecting the nebula round 1 Argis. We must now 
consider them somewhat more in detail, and examine at the same 
time Sir John Herschel’s views respecting the supposed changes in 
the figure and aspect of the nebula. 
In the first place a remarkable change would seem to have 
taken place in the luminosity of the nebula itself. On a clear fine 
night the object is twice as bright as the Nubecula Major, and 
three times as bright as the N ubecula Minor. In twilight it is 
seen as soon as a star of the second or third magnitude, the light 
being white and more diffuse; very like a small woolly cloud on a 
blue sky, seen in sunlight. Now Sir J. Herschel states that in 
1832 no nebulosity could be perceived with the naked eye, even on 
a dark night, and “assuredly not in twilight such as just to allow 
stars of 2-3 magnitude to become visible.” Both the nubecule 
are completely obliterated in twilight of this sort. 
Then the arrangement of the nebulous masses would s seem, if 
Mr. Abbott's diagrams can be trusted, to have undergone the most 
remarkable variations, not merely since the date of Sir J. Herschel’s 
observations, but even during the last few years. The instrument 
made use of by Mr. Abbott was a 5-feet equatorial, by Dallmeyer. 
The light-gathermg power of such an instrument is of course not 
comparable with that of Sir J. Herschel’s 18-inch reflector; but 
it seems impossible to imagine that a mere difference in the amount 
of light should cause an object resembling that figured by Sir J. 
Herschel to assume the appearance presented in either of Mr. 
Abbott’s drawings. These drawings also bear not the least resem- 
blance to each other ; and Mr. Abbott states that the position and 
figure of the nebula presented in the two drawings he has sent to 
the Society, are far from being the only ones in which the object 
has appeared. “A system of photographs would be the only 
means, he says, “of assisting materially the recognition of the 
principles of irregularity which pervade the whole structure of the 
nebula.” 
On this point Si J. Herschel remarks that “there is no 
phenomenon in nebulous or sidereal astronomy, that has yet turned 
up, presenting anything like the interest of this, or calculated to 
raise so many and such momentous points for inquiry and specu- 
